Why I'm Enlisting in the IDF Today
Dear Healthy Jew,
At a lonely outpost near Gaza, a combat support soldier stands guard, making sure only the right people enter the war zone at the right time.
His service is crucial for Israel’s security. War is about order and logistics as much as guns and tanks. Without him, Hamas could roll right up to our home in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Who is this soldier?
Until October 7, 2023, he was a regular religious Jew — perhaps a rabbi, a husband and father, and a teacher in a local yeshiva. Maybe he has a business on the side.
In other words, he’s just like me, and probably half a dozen other people you know.
His life unraveled when the war with Hamas began. He was called up for months of active duty, away from his family and his beloved books. His business is collapsing.
And yet, day after day, he stands under the desert sun, waiting for someone to take his place.
He may need to wait a long time.
The IDF is short about 12,000 soldiers, and the shortage will continue even after Gaza. Post–October 7 Israel can no longer rely on a “small and smart” army. There’s no substitute for real people willing to show up and defend their nation.
There are tens of thousands of soldiers like this one. I can’t ignore their plight, because I belong to the Jewish community of Israel today.
Belonging to a nation means expanding our sense of self. I’m not only Shmuel Chaim. I’m part of a people bound by Torah, mitzvos, and our land.
I am my portion of our nation, and I share in its choices and responsibilities.
That includes supporting and protecting everyone in the community, whether or not they dress and think exactly like me.
This is a spiritual value, not only a social norm.
The Rambam (Hilchot Teshuva 3:1) taught that God judges not only each person, but also every community and the entire world. These three levels — individual, community, and world — mirror the Torah’s early stories: Adam (individual), the Flood (world), and Sodom and Gomorrah (community).
So every choice I make isn’t only mine. It affects my portion of my community, and my portion of humankind.
Thankfully, Israel today is no Sodom and Gomorrah.
It is a thriving country where millions of Jews live lives of Torah, prayer, kindness, family, and community. Millions more, though less observant, do their best to live as Jews in their homeland.
I own a part of their world, and they own a piece of mine.
This would be true even in an imagined Jewish province in Alaska. But it is infinitely more so in Israel — the land without which our nation could not exist.
Besides being the living body of the Jewish people (that’s the subject of my book, Land of Health), Israel is the only place where Torah law recognizes a group of Jews as a community.
The Torah provides a special atonement process for a Sanhedrin whose mistaken ruling causes a majority of the “community of Israel” to sin. Only Jews living in Israel count toward this majority, because, in the Rambam’s words, “only those living in Israel are called a community.”1
Even more striking, the Torah gives the sages of Israel the authority to set the Jewish calendar for the entire world. No calculation done outside Israel, no matter how brilliant, can fix our months and years. Without Israel’s rabbis, there would be no Jewish calendar.
But Rambam reassures us: “God forbid that will happen, for He has promised never to erase all traces of our nation.”2 No Israel means no Jews. So God’s promise to preserve us includes preserving the Jewish community of Israel.
The Rambam wrote these words in the 12th century, when only a few thousand Jews lived here. Today, thankfully, we are 7.5 million.
Today, as throughout Jewish history, supporting and protecting Israel’s Jewish community means ensuring the very existence of the Jewish nation.
That’s why I am joining the IDF today and training to be a combat support soldier. It’s my turn to stand under the desert sun in that lonely outpost near Gaza.
In the weeks and months ahead, I’ll share how the journey unfolds, alongside our regular Healthy Jew mix of wellness with wisdom, the Land of Life, and sensible spirituality.
Read more:
https://thehealthyjew.substack.com/p/dispatch-from-idf-boot-camp
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